Airbnb Business Model: Profit Over Human Safety

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I just had the worst travel experience of my life at this Airbnb. This company is deplorable and has put profit over human life. I would like to share my story because I hope no one will ever have to go through what I am currently going through with them.

My family (nine adults and two young children) and I planned a trip down to Valle De Guadelupe in Mexico for this weekend with a tour company that would take us from San Diego down to Mexico Saturday morning and would take us back on Sunday morning. I booked an Airbnb for Saturday night and intended on going there until I received a call early Saturday morning from my tour company. They called because they needed to cancel my family’s trip.

Their vendors were warning them that it was unsafe for anyone to go to Mexico right now because of sudden cartel violence in and around the area of Ensenada and Tijuana the night before where cars were set on fire throughout the city and U.S. citizens were being asked to shelter in place. In order to travel to Valle De Guadelupe, we would have to travel through the border and the city of Ensenada and Tijuana so our tour company did not think it was safe given what their vendors were telling them. This made sense and we were appreciative that they cancelled and refunded our trip.

However, when we went to try and cancel our Airbnb with our host, we did not receive any empathy regarding the situation we were placed in. Instead, we were told that the situation was safe without any evidence that was true and that we had a choice in coming. We had two young children with us. We did not have a choice. We did not want to endanger their lives by going to our Airbnb with active threats of violence in the area we would have to cross through. Airbnb then proceeded to go back and forth with us and at one point even called to say we would be receiving a refund to only send a message 30 minutes later saying they would not be able to because the host denied the refund stating the area was safe. If it was safe, why was everything we were reading about Baja telling us not to go and that the cartels in the area were threatening violence over the weekend?

Airbnb, you should be ashamed of yourselves for running a company that doesn’t care about people’s safety. I am livid that my family was told by your customer service team to travel to an actively unsafe area and put all of our lives at risk.

We called today to see if there were further updates on our request to escalate our inquiry. Airbnb sent a message 30 minutes after our call stating that they were closing our case despite not responding to our request to show us evidence that the area we would be traveling through was safe.

Posted in Airbnb Guest Stories and tagged , , , , , .

4 Comments

  1. AirBnb are foreign born liars and cheats
    I hope they burn in hell each and every single one of them
    Not ever truth
    Hosts lie to scam good people
    The government should put them in prison
    Forever every single one of them

  2. We are dealing with the exact same issue with Airbnb as we were supposed to go to Valle de Guadalupe and had to cancel too.

    I have already contacted my credit card company about this, but I am also thinking about seeking legal recourse as Airbnb has an extenuating circumstances policy that this clearly falls under. Would you be interested in exploring other legal routes?

  3. For 2 yrs airbnb running 7 fraud listings in slum. Most info in listings is deceiving designed to trap guests. Abandoned homes, vagrants, unlicensed airbnb, bar with 1/2 sign, trash in street, etc. Not safe after dark. Violent crime area. Airbnb refuses to remove listings. Guests keep coming. Wrong host, wrong cohost. Wrong description, demands cash payments, GUESTS ARE GETTING HURT

  4. 4 years ago our son either exploded through a 12th floor Airbnb window or was pushed off the roof. We just don’t know because even after a civil lawsuit and Airbnb and Sonesta Hotel Corp. we do not have any security video…. And, of course, it was all ruled a suicide after I posted on Airbnbhell.com and article I’d written about it. Only think I can do now is continue to write a book and post on social media: it’s all on “SAFE. GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SETH”

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